Wednesday, March 30, 2005
Leaders of The Packed - Part 2
"It may be sorted, shipped and unsorted," he says. "At each step a package will get bounced around. It doesn't matter if it's a case of dog food or a computer. They'll be handled the same way, and it's not an easy journey."
The conveyor belt has decreed many changes: no more packages wrapped with string and heavy brown paper, sure to get caught in the maw of the machine and torn to pieces. And there has been a boom in boxes, mailing envelopes and resilient padding of every description as packages crowd all those conveyor belts.
Once, products were manufactured, packed on pallets and sent to a warehouse, where the mounded boxes would be broken down, trucked to stores and finally carried home by the customer. Now, many packages are ordered online and sent directly from the manufacturer to the customer, no pallets involved, more and more individual packing required.
"Now, that package has to get through UPS or the post office," Armstrong says. "Now, it's getting banged around. Another box has been added to the equation, and this has increased the need for something to fill it."
Armstrong sees those boxes filled with Bubble Wrap. He hears the call for Jiffy bags. He speaks happily of Instapaks. These are some of the products that have helped Sealed Air achieve $3.8 billion a year in sales.
"There's an immediate and profitable channel for the manufacturer, but there are issues to overcome," he says. "We [at Sealed Air] see that as job security."
Two inventors, Al Fielding and Marc Chavannes, came up with Bubble Wrap in 1960 as they were trying to create embossed wall covering and developed a means of forming and sealing two webs of plastic film together, capturing cells of air, Armstrong says.
They went on to start Sealed Air, and Fielding was active in the company into the 1980s, Armstrong says.
Sealed Air has 35 packaging and design labs worldwide, 11 of them in this country. Armstrong works in one in Connecticut, where he tests packaging with technology descended from the aerospace industry.
Trying to figure out how to get a product safely from a factory in Shanghai to its destination in Chicago, he'll simulate the vibrations on the truck from the factory in Shanghai to the port, the heat and humidity and condensation in the container at sea, along with the pressure of products loaded on top of each other in the container. He'll study the effects of the unloading in Seattle or Los Angeles, the container's journey to a warehouse, the breaking down and final delivery of the shipment.
Monday, March 28, 2005
Leaders of The Packed
Part 1 of 4
By Kathy LallySpecial to the Washington Post
Sunday, March 27, 2005; Page F01
Bill Armstrong has figured out how to pack and ship everything from frozen pasta to embalming fluid.
He's a graduate of the Michigan State University School of Packaging -- "It's actually a profession," he says -- and a student of the history and art of wrapping things up and sending them off. "The pioneers put their dishes in the flour barrels of their covered wagons, but by the time they got to Wyoming, they had used the flour up baking bread. There were a lot of broken dishes on the Oregon Trail."
Today, as we have throughout history, we're still packing things up and sending them off, whether it's dishes for a move, care packages to homesick college students or birthday presents to favorite friends and relatives. And now we're on the Internet trail, ordering computers and clothes, books and CDs, medicines and more, all of which come individually packed and shipped.
With the flour safely in the pantry, we're using a whole range of materials to cushion our packages, including polystyrene peanuts, the ever-faithful corrugated cardboard, and Bubble Wrap -- little pockets filled with air, the popping of which is so oddly comforting.
Cushioning materials are a small but growing part of the very large packaging business. The Institute of Packaging Professionals estimates that packaging in North America alone is a more than $200 billion-a-year business. Packaging means everything from containing to protecting to selling (see In Store, Page F5), and 60 percent of the business is the packaging of food and beverages. Packaging of pharmaceuticals and health and beauty aids makes up 20 percent.
The remaining 20 percent includes soft goods, such as clothes and carpets, and hard goods -- nearly everything you see around you in your office, including the individually shipped phone, lamp, desk, chair, computer, stapler and coffee maker. Packaging those goods requires engineering acumen along with a bit of artistic flair, skills particularly important in the Internet age.
"The Internet has had a huge influence," says Armstrong, technical development manager for Sealed Air Corp., the company that makes Bubble Wrap brand air-cell cushioning. "It has created a whole new channel from manufacturer to consumer."
Not so long ago, Armstrong says, words alone were considered sufficient to protect some packages. This End Up. Fragile. Handle With Care.
"Ten years ago, we thought packages got dropped because people were careless," he says. "We thought if we put 'Fragile' on it, we wouldn't need so much packaging. Now, it's almost all mechanized, and there's no one to read a label that says, 'Please don't drop this.' "
Your package will find itself on a conveyor belt whether you use the U.S. Postal Service, UPS or FedEx, Armstrong says, and there is one guarantee: It will get a bumpy ride. Rest assured that it will slide down a 12-foot chute at least once.
Sunday, March 27, 2005
No Plans Are On The Table Now For Postage Rate Increase
Question: Is the Post Office planning a rate increase soon?
No. There no doubt will be a rate increase by the U.S. Postal Service sometime, but not this year.
Richmond Postmaster Bruce Davey says the rumor of a rate increase is one of a number of issues and rumors he has had to address.
"First," he said, "the price of postage will not increase this year. It did not increase last year, nor did it increase the year before. Postage rates may increase next year.
"Rates are set by means of a very complicated process that takes approximately one year to complete from the time the Postal Service submits a rate increase request to the Postal Rate Commission."
No such request is before the commission at this time. After one is submitted, there will be plenty of time for public comment from all interested parties, including those who use -- and those who compete against -- the Postal Service.
Perhaps the rumor is prompted because many of the Postal Services competitors raised rates at the first of this year.
"Federal Express, United Parcel Service and DHL have all announced rate increases ... The Postal Service has not raised its rates since 2002. We will not do so until at least 2006, even though, as a business, we face the same increases in costs of operation that everyone else is facing," Davey said.
Another issue that he and other postmasters frequently face is the idea that the Postal Service is inefficient. Maybe that was true once, but modernization and dedication to customer service has turned around that image.
One example is the Postal Service's Web site, usps.com.
To find answers for readers of this column, I visit a lot of Web sites. There are plenty of good ones, but none I have used is better than usps.com. You can do just about anything there that you can do in a Post Office lobby. You can buy stamps; hold, forward, or resume your mail delivery; arrange for parcel pickup; change mailing address; buy stamps; and even create and print mailing labels. You also can learn about postal regulations and news about services.
And when a rate increase process begins, it will be your best source of reliable information about what is proposed and what eventually is approved.
One of the things you can learn on the Web site is why postal officials bristle at any suggestion that it is inefficient.
"...Revenue is up, productivity is up, service is at record levels...and our rates have remained stable since 2002," Azeezaly Jaffer, vice president of the Postal Service for Public Affairs and Communications, wrote at his Web site. "In the past three years, we have cut nearly 70,000 positions without layoffs, reduced costs by $4.3 billion and maintained one-time delivery scores in the mid-90s. Customer satisfaction (as measured by the Gallup Organization) showed that 94 percent of postal customers -- an all-time high -- rated their delivery service from USPS good to excellent during the last quarter of 2004."
NEW PRODUCTS AT PAC-N-SEAL
Saturday, March 26, 2005
An Effort Containing Both Art and Science
The Washington Post
No matter what you're shipping, the product has to end the journey in the manner in which it began: intact.
Take a look at the box that protects this cordless telephone handset from Panasonic Corp., shipped to a customer by Circuit City. Each part of the phone fits snugly; unfold it, and it's a flat piece of cardboard with perforated lines and cutouts.
Panasonic spokesman Jim Reilly says that even before there is a product there is a Panasonic "environmental guy" whose job is to make sure there's a way to ship it "efficiently and in a sound ecological manner."
Bill Armstrong, technical development manager for Sealed Air Corp., maker of Bubble Wrap brand air-cell cushioning and other packing materials, calls this kind of legerdemain "corrugated origami."
"The first part is engineering," he says. "The other part is art."
First the designer has to work with the phone manufacturer to find out what kind of treatment could break it, and what will happen to it on its journey from where it's made to its final destination. Underlying the process is the question of environmental impact: How much material is being used, and how will the person who ends up with the product get rid of the packing?
The engineering element comes into play as the designer analyzes the information with the goal of locking all parts in place two inches from the face of the box.
"Then it becomes an art form," Armstrong says. "How do you get the most amount of protection using the least amount of material? The corrugated people have a lot of experience. They can cut a piece out of here, roll it out here, put a tab in there."
The requirements can be put into a computer-designed program, and the corrugated piece is put on a sample table, where knives will cut out the piece just as the computer programmed it.
"You create the prototype, and that can be transferred to a manufacturing process," Armstrong says. A rotary die press with two cylinders -- one of them with blades -- meshes together, cutting the material at high speed. The process is the same whether it's corrugated, foam or bubbles, he says.
-- Kathy Lally
Monday, March 21, 2005
Beware of counterfeit USPS money orders
From 11 News Staff Reports
Money orders have long been a convenient way to pay bills or send funds through the mail.
They can be bought just about anywhere, including the post office.
Now, counterfeiters are using Uncle Sam's good name to target you.
"The scripture enjoins us to be as harmless as doves, as wise as serpents," says Dr. Alan Kitay.
It was that belief and computer savvy that kept Dr. Kitay from making a costly mistake.
The e-mail said that Dr. Kitay would get a huge donation for his church if he would send money to pay for legal and postage fees.
"She wanted to donate $27 million to my ministry, which she saw my Web page on the Internet," he says.
The counselor and teacher didn't fall for the message. Shortly afterward, he received, "three money orders for $1,000 each," he says.
He also received instructions to cash them and send back three new money orders with the church's name on it -- all to prove the church really does exist.
Dr. Kitay knew this was a scam and that the money orders were fake.
"It says here "Susan Gardner, then Gardener -- the second one says 'ener' and the third one says 'iner". The person who sent this theoretically came from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, but the money order has a Texas zip code on it," he says.
"He was very smart. Unsuspecting citizens are being contacted by a fraudster whether it be on the Internet through a chatroom or on an online auction," says USPS Inspector Vanessa Kimbrough.
Kimbrough says since September, $27 million in counterfeit US Postal Service Money Orders have been found circulating throughout the country. Many of them have come from Nigeria.
"The Postal Service Money Order is one of the most secure financial instruments one can utilize when making a financial transaction. We don't want the public to lose faith," Kimbrough says.
If you receive money orders, there are some steps you can take to make sure they're not the counterfeits.
"Put it up to the light, look for that water mark, the impression of Benjamin Franklin," Kimbrough says.
You can see that same image on the back.
Also, there is a thread that runs all the way through the money order that has USPS on it.
The best form of defense is common sense. That, and a little faith, kept Dr. Kitay from becoming a victim.
You can verify a US Postal Service Money Order in person by visiting any substation or call 1-800-372-8347.
NEW PRODUCTS AT PAC-N-SEAL
Sunday, March 13, 2005
Wrapped up in a new idea
Wrapped or roll-up sandwiches are replacing traditional sliced-bread lunches, while shrink-wrap plastic is transforming the outdoor storage of boats and other large items. Everywhere south of Boston, boats stand atop trailers or metal stands cocooned in white plastic, awaiting late-spring metamorphosis.
Plastic wrap began by accident. In 1933 Ralph Wiley, a college student employed by Dow Chemical to wash glassware, scrubbed hard at the residue of a failed experiment. The more he tinkered with the sticky product, the more he thought it might prove useful. The substance, called polyvinylidene chloride, stank, and its original green color deflected most observers. But in World War II, the military wrapped fighter planes in it before loading them in Liberty ships as Europe-bound deck cargo. After the war, Dow engineers eliminated the odor and made the film transparent. Saran Wrap was approved for commercial food-packaging use in 1949 and for home use four years later. A packaging revolution followed.
Unintended invention has shaped many packaging products. In 1938, Roy Plunkett discovered what became Teflon while working at Dupont on refrigerants. He paused to examine a flask of solidified refrigerant that became the tough, no-stick surface used by the military and then at home, beginning in the 1960s with Teflon-coated frying pans. Nineteen years later in Hawthorne, N.J., Alfred W. Fielding and Marc Chavannes failed in their effort to make plastic-coated paper wallpaper. But they accidentally produced what became known as Bubble-Wrap, the main item sold today by Sealed Air Corporation, the huge firm they created. Bubble wrapped items often move inside shrink-wrapped boxes themselves shrink-wrapped in cubes atop pallets. Plastic packaging protects against moisture, but also against movement and breakage.
Boat wrap is an industrial-quality, low-density polyethylene film made from fractional-melt resin that shrinks slightly when heated to between 275 and 350 degrees. Manufacturers first wrapped fiberglass boats to protect them during highway transport in open trailers. Longtime area residents might remember long trailers filled with Boston Whaler boats leaving the now-closed Rockland factory for delivery as far away as California. Highway debris sometimes marred the glossy finish and windshields of mass-produced boats, and by the late 1980s builders had begun cocooning them in white plastic. Transport boat wrap is more elastic than ordinary boat wrap, since it must withstand winds of 60 miles an hour and higher. It is almost always white, to reflect the sunlight than can raise interior temperatures and damage delicate details.
Storage wrap is less elastic and sometimes a bit thinner, although in this region installers err on the side of thickness to prevent snow and ice damage. Despite manufacturer options, most boat wrap is white. On the chance that some boat owners will leave boats covered through summer, few installers will use blue wrap, or the green that blends into foliage. Boat wrap is impregnated with ultra-violet-light inhibitors to prevent rapid decay, but this far north wrap has a far lower content of UVIs than that sold in Arizona. Thick Arizona wrap might last three or four years here.
The wrap is cheap. A roll 14 feet wide by 150 feet long and 6 millimeters thick costs about $82 at the factory. A roll 40 feet wide by 100 feet long and 7 millimeters thick costs about $196 and weighs 135 pounds. Except on very windy days, installation is simple. One or two people can wrap the clingy film over the top of a fiberglass boat, stretching it down over the hull and bottom. Then one waves a propane-fired or electric heat gun over the film, and it shrinks in place, grabbing the bottom of the boat and tightening tent-like over the top. Wise installers add a few stick-on louvers to encourage air exchange, and a 3-by-3-foot zipper door makes intermittent interior inspection easy. Prudent boat owners buy a small roll of specialized repair tape too.
But plastic wrap harms wood boats, which must breathe. Owners of traditional boats still erect frames of wood or plastic pipe, then cover frame and boat loosely with green canvas or blue plastic tarps that keep out rain and snow but admit air easily. Too much heat, even on a late autumn day, can blister paint or dry out a wood boat so quickly that its planks and frame twist, often beyond repair. A tight seal can produce condensation that causes deterioration. Old-timers know wood boats require constant ventilation, and they battle against squirrels and other wild creatures who see canvas-shrouded wooden boats as wintertime motels.
Plastic boat wrap also warns local planning boards of construction industry changes moving north from Florida and other southern states. Already contractors shrink-wrap commercial buildings before removing asbestos and other dangerous products. But across the South, small-scale renovators and property owners have begun to experiment with wrapping deteriorating buildings while they raise money for permanent repair. South-of-Boston residents accustomed to seeing new houses briefly covered with white Tyvek insulating fabric and fiberglass boats cocooned in white shrink-wrap might begin to ponder the appearance of houses and other structures mummified in white plastic for a few years. Abutters who accept wrapped boats may not easily accept wrapped garden sheds, disused automobiles, houses, and commercial buildings. But fore now, only contractors see the accidental invention implicit in boat wrap.
Tuesday, March 08, 2005
Five post employees office behind bars
Morocco, Local, 3/7/2005
Five employees in the Moroccan post office (Barid Al-Maghrib) were arrested last Thursday for stealing parcels and mail coming from abroad.
Police started a probe in the case after an executive in the post office administration notified it that an increasing number of people have complained that they have not received the parcels and mail sent to them.
Three employees in the office were caught red-handed as they were transporting stolen packages to a car. The two others were arrested downtown, where they were supposed to meet their accomplices.
The culprits used to comb through the received mail to look for valuable objects before destroying any document likely to raise doubts.
They are facing charges of theft, abuse of trust and destruction of official documents.
We are about to add the following products to our website ...
Color Mailing Tubes - 6 attention grabbing colors!
Colored Tissue Paper - 10 lb. packs of great colors
Stretch Film In Colors - including opaque black!!!
PLUS more colorful items coming soon!
Monday, March 07, 2005
Privatize This
The USPS needs urgent and wide-ranging reform.
By Sam Ryan
It's time to privatize the U.S. Postal Service. We no longer need a federal agency to deliver our junk mail. The facts are plain. Even with a locked-in monopoly, the USPS can't make ends meet. Its accounting is so murky and convoluted it makes our Enrons and WorldComs look like models of financial transparency. We mail-users — and ultimately taxpayers — end up paying through the nose for the increasingly obsolete privilege of "universal service," i.e., six-day-a-week delivery to every household in the nation.
If USPS were a private company, now would be the time to get serious about cutting costs and downsizing. Instead, the organization plans to do what it always does when the going gets tough — raise stamp prices. Last month, USPS took the first step when its board of governors directed management to file for an increase, which will probably hit stamp buyers in early 2006.
If USPS were a competitive company — as opposed to bloated federal bureaucracy — stamp prices would be falling, not rising. Despite new technology — like modern reader/sorters that process over 30,000 pieces of mail per hour — stamp prices have risen with inflation since 1970. Imagine if the price of a phone call or sending an e-mail rose with inflation for 30 years.
USPS is simply unable to capitalize on its multibillion-dollar technology investments, or on its massive economies of scale. A December study by leading experts of the Postal Rate Commission notes: "The doubling of overall volume coupled with scale economies should have resulted in the average price of the stamp dropping in real terms."
Well, okay. So you might have to pay 41 cents to mail a letter. What's the big deal? It may be illegal to take your envelopes elsewhere, but you can just move your business — including receiving and paying your bills — online, right? Let the postal service sock it to big mailers, who together make up a $900-billion industry, and to the nice people who still mail out Christmas and Valentine's Day cards. The problem is, USPS is already so deep underwater that even hiking stamp prices won't solve its financial crisis. Raising the price of letter delivery just drives customers away at an even faster rate.
Of course, politicians, economists, and postal officials have argued for years about the best remedy for the bloated, inefficient, and union-dominated postal service. Some change may finally come about during the current session of Congress, with postal-reform bills pending in the House and Senate. The draft proposals, however, don't call for busting the monopoly or privatizing the Service.
Yet in its own much-touted transformation plan, published in 2002, the USPS envisions itself as a future "Commercial Government Enterprise." The postal service's website suffix was switched from dot-gov to dot-com, and the postmaster general's title changed to "Postmaster General and CEO." But public posturing aside, what exactly does "Commercial Government Enterprise" mean?
"Postal Service managers would operate under more businesslike conditions. The Postal Service would offer both traditional and nontraditional products and implement market-based pricing, discounts and incentives, and business-based financing," the transformation plan says.
Unfortunately, the ballyhooed transformation plan says nothing about ending the USPS monopoly. Although postal officials want the postal service to walk and talk like a private firm, they won't consider making it one. After all, that would mean they'd have to divulge their mysterious accounting system that lumps 40 percent of costs into a murky, "general overhead" slush fund.
There is one side of private enterprise that's enticing the USPS though. It has no qualms about jumping into markets that have been transformed by private companies, like overnight package delivery. With all its special privileges and some expensive fancy-dance advertising, it can grab new business from the private sector. Remember, USPS is exempt from most taxes; it's free from SEC financial-reporting requirements; it can borrow from the U.S. Treasury at favorable rates, and, most importantly, it milks the cash cow of a government-enforced monopoly on letter delivery.
Having a captive monopoly market means the USPS can cross-subsidize — that is, use profits from letter delivery to fund expansion into other lines of business. Normally this would be considered predatory monopolistic behavior, and illegal. But the postal service is exempt from antitrust law.
Consider the transformation plan's bizarre phrasing: "At stake is the future of what has been, since this nation's founding, the right of every American to send and receive mail." It almost seems like the postal service thinks of itself as a constitutional right. Well, it's not. Mail may have once been the glue that held our far-flung nation together, but newer technologies make such USPS posturing ludicrous today. Most Americans these days would be far more upset by interruptions in e-mail than in snail mail. Yet you never hear the argument that the government should be the only provider of Internet access.
Indeed, the Internet has contributed to the postal service's long-term downward financial spiral, but USPS does not seem resolved to downsize its 800,000-strong workforce. "The Postal workforce is bigger than any two branches of the military combined. You could replace the Marines and the Army with postal workers, and you'd still have some mailmen left over," says Tom Readmond, federal-affairs manager of Americans for Tax Reform.
To be completely fair, Postmaster General John Potter has made a significant belt-tightening effort. Under his leadership, USPS has eliminated more than 85,000 employees, which represents a reduction of more than 10 percent of the workforce since 1999. Most of this reduction was brought about not by layoffs, but through attrition; i.e., leaving posts vacant when workers retired.
But USPS is still massively oversized, and waste abounds. Forget about the Pentagon's $600 toilet-seat covers. The average postal worker earns over 25 percent more than his private-sector, factory-worker counterpart. No wonder labor still accounts for two thirds of USPS costs, compared to about 50 percent at private delivery companies.
William Henderson, the U.S. postmaster general from 1998 to 2001, wrote upon leaving that "what the Postal Service needs now is nothing short of privatization." He even recommended an employee stock-ownership plan that "would motivate workers by allocating stock to them over time."
Across the Atlantic, such reforms are already underway. The European Union aims to privatize all its national postal services by 2009. Yet here, the U.S. postal service cries foul when it is faced with real market-based reforms.
Furthermore, declining mail volume, brought on by the e-mail revolution, has resulted in more than $4.5 billion in lost USPS revenue since 2000. And a long-term volume decline is just a small piece of the problem. Few Americans realize that the USPS already has accumulated over $70 billion in unfunded liabilities — mostly money promised to employees in retirement and health benefits. The USPS doesn't have that money. Nobody knows how on earth it's going to meet these liabilities.
But here's a not-so-wild guess. Sooner or later, USPS will ask Congress for a massive bailout. If there were any point to saving the postal service in its current form, such a gift might even be worth a few taxpayer dollars. But there isn't one. It would be throwing more good money after bad. The USPS is a drag on the government, on the economy, on the marketplace it unfairly distorts, and on consumers and taxpayers. It should be privatized without delay.
— Sam Ryan is a senior fellow at the Lexington Institute, a think tank based in Arlington, Virginia.
Polyethylene Drum Liners, Fitted Dust Covers And Cap Sheets
Plastic Sheeting In Clear And Black Recycled Polyethylene Plastic
Friday, March 04, 2005
Friday Fun - Go Fly A Kite!
Originally invented to be used as wallpaper and/or insulation, this ultra-verstile packing material has found many more uses over the years. Not only is Bubble Wrap used as a play toy or stress reliever, it has been used to make clothing, intruder alarms, curtains and has even been known to be used inside a few boxes from time to time!
Here's a new use - building a kite made of Bubble Wrap. Gives the kids a way to get involved with Bubble Wrap other than just popping it.
Bubble Wrap Kite Instructions
MATERIALS: Bubble Wrap; thin, light weight wood; duct tape; string; scissors.
STEP 1: For a diamond-shaped kite, fold a piece of Bubble Wrap in half. Starting from the fold, make diagonal cuts. The sides on the bottom portion of the kite should be longer than the sides on the top half. Unfold.
STEP 2: Cut two pieces of wood to fit the length and width of the kite. Lay the pieces in a cross shape.
STEP 3: Cut two thin strips of duct tape and wrap them around the wood pieces where they cross each other.
STEP 4: Cut four more strips of duct tape. Lay one piece at each of the four corners and press firmly.
STEP 5: Cut a large piece of string with which to fly the kite. Tie it to the kite in the center of the cross.
Source: Liggett-Stashower
Thursday, March 03, 2005
Program adds plastics to list of recyclables
The Register-Guard
Bubble wrap, shrink wrap, plastic grocery bags, six-pack rings and dry cleaning bags - they're all officially recyclable in Lane County now.
But you still can't leave them curbside.
If you want to recycle them, you'll have to take them to one of nine recycling spots. The new program is being sponsored by Weyerhaeuser Co., which sells the material to industrial clients for conversion into other plastic products.
Until now, the common packaging materials have typically ended up at Lane County's landfill at Short Mountain. But starting Tuesday, Lane County's free recycling stations began accepting the plastic film, so long as it's clean and dry, said Pete Chism, waste reduction specialist at Lane County Waste Management Division.
Weyerhaeuser has been collecting plastic film from commercial clients for about three years, said Wayne Jackson, general manager of the company's recycling complex in Glenwood. The materials collected by Weyerhaeuser usually have been used to package commercial products such as lumber and wood-stove pellets.
The company has determined there's a consistent market for the plastic, Jackson said. "You hate to go public on a market until you feel like it's stable enough," he said. "Once you open the flood gates, it's really really tough to turn them off."
The plastic films are being used by manufacturers to create new extruded plastic products, and are also being combined with wood fiber to create decking boards.
Depending on many variables - such as how clean it is, where it's located and what quantity is being offered - baled plastic film can fetch up to $200 a ton on the market, said Lorena Young, senior sourcing representative for Weyer- haeuser.
Jackson didn't have exact figures, but said Weyerhaeuser is collecting well more than 30 tons of plastic film a month. He had no idea how much homeowners might increase to that. "A couple tons a month would be a great start," he said.
Chism couldn't forecast the demand, either. "We don't have anything at this point to compare this to," he said. "We're offering this service, and really we're going to have to just see what happens."
PUT PLASTIC IN ITS PLACE
Clean, dry plastic film is being accepted at Lane County's eight largest recycling stations:
• Cottage Grove, 78760 Sears Road. Hours are 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday
• Creswell, 34293 Cloverdale Road. Hours are 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday
• Glenwood, 3100 E. 17th Ave. Hours are 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday
• Florence, 2820 N. Rhododendron Drive. Hours are 8 a.m.
to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday
• Marcola, 38935 Shotgun Creek Road. Hours are 9 a.m.
to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday
• Oakridge, 48977 Kitson Springs Road. Hours are 8 a.m.
to 6 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday
• Rattlesnake, 82572 Rattlesnake Road, Dexter. Hours are
9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday
• Veneta, 24444 Bolton Hill Road. Hours are 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday
• Also, Weyerhaeuser's recycling facility at 3425 E. 17th St., Glenwood, is accepting plastic film, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Wednesday, March 02, 2005
The wrap-up: Pop goes the Web page
Rick Lingle, Technical Editor, Pack World.com
Like duct tape, Sealed Air’s Bubble Wrap® packaging material has become part of our pop culture, so to speak. And for those addicted to popping Bubble Wrap—and you know who you are—there’s an online alternative to that one-of-a-kind satisfaction that only popping Bubble Wrap can provide. Billed as the “most fun you can have online!,” this site is found on the Web at virtual-bubblewrap.com.
Once there, and with Macromedia Flash Player installed, you can pop away using unlimited cybersheets of this “pop”ular material. You can also learn proper bubble popping etiquette. The site tracks the 50 top scores, so you could become a “pop star.” An “insane” version provides goofy sound effects.
The site has a link to the real Bubble Wrap page at Sealed Air’s corporate Web site. That’s where I discovered that I missed the 5th Annual Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day, held on Monday, January 31, 2005. That burst my bubble, but we’ll have to plan ahead for next year.
Upon my return to www.virtual-bubblewrap.com, I learned that the site has had 750,000 visits that generated 2 2/3-million page views. I found that the average visit lasts 2:26. However, my visit lasted longer because of the research required for this article.
Meanwhile, until the next Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day, you can virtually pop, pop, pop to your heart’s content.
